Sanyo says New Laser to Double Blu-ray Capacity

Sanyo said it has developed a blue-laser diode that will help lay the foundation for higher-capacity and faster Blu-ray Disc systems. The laser releases a beam of 450 mW—nearly double the power of Sanyo's current Blu-ray lasers.

More power typically translates into the ability to write (and read) disc data with as many as four data layers, at speeds approaching 12X, according to Sanyo. With current lasers, each layer can hold up to about 25 GB of data, and some of today's upper-end commercial discs have two recording layers. Thus, a four-layer disc would be able to hold 100 GB of data—or approximately 7.5 to 8 hours of typical HD video. At a speed of 12X, the 100 GB of data could be burned to a Blu-ray disc less than 15 minutes.

Higher capacity laser diodes are not expected to be included in any future Blu-ray products for at least two years, and maybe longer.

TDK, a major supporter of the Blu-ray Disc format, said it has developed a method using blue laser technology to capture up to 200 GB on a single disc -- double the capacity of TDK's existing 100 GB Blu-ray prototype. A single 200 GB blue laser disc could store as much as 18 hours of HD video when encoded at 24 Mbps.

Fifty GB Blu-ray discs are coming first to a merchant or Web site near you, but TDK is reportedly previewing a 200 GB Blu-ray disc, which the company claims has enough storage to hold as much as 18 hours of HD, encoded at 24 Mbps.

BenQ , a cell phone and computer equipment maker, will soon unveil an optical DVD disc writer that will burn Blu-ray discs. BenQ said the units, expected to retail for about $1,000 (typical for other planned Blu-ray products), will arrive in stores starting in August. A late summer introduction of the unit (model BW1

According to published reports, a shortage of blue laser diodes at various optical disc drive (ODD) manufacturing plants is not likely to markedly ease in coming months, which could result in delaying the anticipated head-on competition between Blu-ray and HD-DVD drives beyond the holiday shopping season, to early 2007

JVC is unveiling its Blu-Ray/DVD Combo ROM disc with a 33.5 GB capacity. The disc can store both HD and SD video has a one-side readout, triple layer structure of an outer 25 GB Blu-ray disc (BD) and an inner 8.5 GB DVD dual layer. A disc can be reproduced in high-definition BD video quality on a large home theatr